and "Happy" and "Want action."
Within an
hour Dr. Weybrew had his quota.
We traveled at varying depths. Our ocea
nographer, Nicholas Mabry, recorded tempera
ture and salinity profiles from the surface to
below 400 feet. Periodically we rose to peri
scope depth to listen for messages on the
radio, to make our observations, and to re
vitalize our atmosphere without using our
precious oxygen bottles.
All this necessarily slowed us down. Were
Triton to make all the speed of which she is
capable and at the same time raise her peri
scopes, masts, and antennas while submerged,
they would be bent over and ruined, or
snapped off where they emerge from the sail
-the tower for periscopes and antennas.
Coming to periscope depths takes time,
too, because we must first listen cautiously,
at slow speed, for fear of crashing into some
innocent ship above. Thus our progress was
a bit like that of a heavy truck on a highway
- lickety-split on the straightaway (deeply
submerged), much slower on the upgrades
(to periscope depth).
On February 23, the depth recorder regis
tered a 9,000-foot seamount, one of the two
highest encountered on the voyage. And next
day our enthusiasm reached a peak when we
made our first landfall on St. Peter and St.
Paul Rocks, off the coast of Brazil just north
of the Equator. The "Rocks" are jagged peaks
Like airplane pilots, planesmen manipulate the diving and rudder controls. Chief
of the watch checks gauges that register speed, course, and depth. Triton's top speed
is secret, but Captain Beach's log points out: "Almost with disbelief, we note what
speed we are registering: And, looking at the various gauges of the propulsion equip
ment, we realize we have but scratched the surface of Triton's real potential."
A single
charge of nuclear fuel about the size of a grapefruit sufficed for the entire run.
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